Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of body odor. This paraphrase of the famous statement by Theodosius Dobzhansky is more than just a linguistic pun. Evolution and body odor are tightly linked. Individuals need to make the right choices in order to realize a higher reproduction rate than accomplished by their competitors. If all offspring of an individual would live to reproduce this would quickly lead to huge numbers within only a few generations. However, each offspring has to cope with competition, with finding sufficient food, and with enemies that try to use the individual for lunch. Every individual must not only be a jack of all trades but should master them all. It does not pay to be only good at finding a good food source. If this is combined with being an inferior competitor or with being inefficient at escaping from predators, then finding a good food source is of little use. An individual should be good at finding food, ánd at competing with competitors ánd at finding a mate ánd at producing offspring. That is what life is all about: building new bodies of the best quality; that is, producing viable offspring that can successfully produce grandchildren.
Results/Conclusions
Since the mid 1990s it has become clear that many important ecological interactions in plant-arthropod communities such as competition and predation are plant-mediated and that induced plant volatiles play an important role in this. This presentation will address how arthropods and plants exploit body odors in various interactions that include mutualistic interactions, but also exploitation, sabotage and espionage. Herbivores generally induce the production of volatiles in their food plants and these herbivore-induced plant volatiles can be exploited by any community member. Intriguingly, some herbivores can interfere with this process with consequences for plant-arthropod interactions. In addition to ecological aspects I will also address the underlying mechanisms that shape the interactions so as to address the selective pressures in operation.
